Lily Pad
by Kohaku no Hime
Summary: She had already promised herself that she would hold off on saying it - but her task was made ten times difficult because, right now, he looked ridiculously cute. Set post-series and unabashed polarshipping fluff.


_I was watching Disney's version of Hercules with my younger brother when my bunnies said, "OMG I HAZ IDEA LOL WRITE NAO."_

_...Literally. No fooling. They're deranged bunnies._

_Anyway, I came up with this oneshot based off of a certain part in that movie (kudos goes to anyone who can ID the part I based this off of). It's kinda short, but it wouldn't leave me alone until I put it down and I have school work to do; I may come back later and flesh it out some more, but for now I have this._

_Post-series, follows the timeline established in,"To Get To The Other Side," and "Welcome Back," and leave reviews on the way out!_

* * *

Mai would not say it.

No way, no how. There was no way she would say it in front of him; that would boost his ego, and that was badly inflated enough as it was. Besides, the dust between them was still settling down—she had only been back in Domino for four weeks and things were still being ironed out, despite the fact that he had said she was forgiven. She had gotten into an apartment that was not too far from the downtown area, right between Domino High and supposedly where Jounouchi lived.

No, it was best for the moment if she waited to say those three words. Things were still being settled and they were still ironing out a few kinks in their friendship. She was uncertain about how Jounouchi would react to those words and for now she held them in.

But currently she was coming really close to saying it because dang it all, right now he looked ridiculously cute.

Jounouchi peered up at her from where he had fallen, his brown eyes gazing at her from under the lily pad perched on his head."This is what I get for trying to balance on the wall while walking backwards," he said sheepishly, grinning up at her as he treaded water.

The teenager had gotten onto the wall earlier as the two of them were walking through the park (Mai's apartment was on the other side and the park really was the fastest way there) and he had been walking over the stone bridge that extended over the pond. Unfortunately, he had misstepped and had let out a startled yelp as he vanished over the side of the wall and into the water.

"Anything broken besides your ego?" she asked now with a fair amount of concern. He had not fallen that far from the bridge, but that did not mean she was not allowed to worry.

"Nah," he said, already to the edge of the small pond and clambering out of it, shaking the extra water out of his shoes. The other blonde disappeared from view for just a moment before he came back onto the bridge, slightly jogging up to her. "I've been through worse things."

The blonde blinked as the roots from the lily pad atop of his head (miraculously still in its place) dangled in his immediate line of vision, reaching up to pull it off. Jounouchi studied the small flower on it thoughtfully before he looked away pointedly and holding it out to her. "Here," he said, handing her the plant (pad and all). "Girls like flowers."

Mai came _very_ close to saying it then, and she said nothing for a long moment.

"Jounouchi, girls like bouquets of flowers. They don't like being handed a lily pad taken from a scum covered pond," she said to cover herself, smirking at the sopping wet Jounouchi.

The brown-eyed teenager blinked back at her with something of embarrassed disbelief before he scowled and said, "It's still a flower!"

"And how exactly do you propose I put this in a vase, hm?" she countered, holding it up with two fingertips.

"…Put it in your bathtub, smarty pants."

Mai raised one petite eyebrow. "You mean I should create a pond to accommodate the lily pad that you gave me?" she asked with feigned innocence, a faint smirk dancing on her features. "How arrogant of you. I could possibly put this in a vase, but a bathtub? How inconvenient for a girl."

Jounouchi flushed. "No, I mean that since you're pretty and the lily pad's pretty and…no wait, I mean that girls generally…wait, that sounds sexist…but Shizuka always puts flowers that people give her in a vase and that's technically a flower, but you said you couldn't put it in a vase and…ARGH!" he exclaimed at last, completely flustered. "Just take the thing already!"

Mai could not help it. A small giggle escaped her before she burst out laughing. "Jounouchi, have I mentioned before that you're a dork?" she said through her laughter. "I'll hold onto this so you don't get an aneurysm."

The blonde teen stared at her for one more second before he threw his hands in the air and stomped forward. "Women," he muttered, loud enough for Mai to hear. "I'm never going to understand them. Never."

Mai understood this comment to be made with jest and she did not take it to heart. She followed after him, her laughter tapering off as her smirk softened into a smile.

There were two things now that she wasn't going to admit out loud: one, she actually liked this silly lily pad he had given her and intended to fill the other half of the kitchen sink in her apartment to accommodate the plant.

The other was that she really did love this dork.


End file.
